Carey Baldwin Confesses All!

Today, I am so excited to host our very own Carey Baldwin and her brand new psychological thriller CONFESSION. I’ve just finished reading it and CONFESSION is AMAZING. It kept me up all night so just be prepared for a very tired “next day”.

Newly minted psychiatrist Faith Clancy gets the shock of her life when her first patient confesses to the grisly Saint murders. By law Faith’s compelled to notify the authorities, but is her patient really the Saint? Or will she contribute to more death by turning the wrong man over to the police?

Faith is going to need all her wits and the help of a powerful adversary, Luke Jericho, if she’s to unravel the truth. But she doesn’t realize she’s about to become an unwitting pawn in a serial killer’s diabolical game. For once he’s finished with Faith, she’ll become his next victim.

SW: This might seem obvious by the cover, but readers will want to know: What’s the tone of the book? Light or dark?

CB: CONFESSION is a dark psychological thriller with strong romantic elements. I’d compare it in tone to something by Karen Rose or Allison Brennan. I’m not claiming to be amazing like those two authors of course! But readers should be prepared for a dark tone and a dark villain. In other words CONFESSION is not for scaredy cats. That said, it’s a wonderful love story too.

SW: You can definitely make that “amazing” claim. So what makes Luke and Faith, your hero and heroine, unique? How do they think?

CB: I really admire Faith and Luke, and I think they complement each other well. Faith lost her parents at a young age, then later lost the sister who raised her. Faith pulled herself out of a funk, and though she came from a working class background, managed to get herself an Ivy League education. She’s devoted her life to helping others. Of course, she likes keeping the focus on others so she doesn’t have to deal with her own emotions. But Luke’s not going to let her get away with that for long.

Luke Jericho: He comes from a life of wealth and privilege. He’s a man who has everything—and can do everything—from running an empire to riding a bucking bronco. Luke says it best himself when he tells Faith: “I don’t seduce. I don’t persuade. When I see something I want, I just go get it.”

One thing Luke and Faith have in common is they hate injustice and they’ll do just about anything to right a wrong.

BTW. The most unique character in my book is the villain. But if I told you what makes him tick, I’d be giving away the whole shebang!

SW: I love heroes like Luke, men with a quiet confident strength. But your serial killer is unique in a terrifying way. He has a phobia—he’s afraid of blood. Do you have any phobias?

CB: Yes, I used to be afraid of needles. Which was a wee bit of a problem considering I wanted to become a doctor. In CONFESSION my serial killer has a blood phobia, and he turns to Faith to overcome it. Of course she doesn’t know he’s a diabolical killer, or that the blood he craves most is hers.

SW: Did your previous job as a clinical psychologist play any role in the plot of this book?

CB: Absolutely. In ways I didn’t understand until the book was written. There were several times as a psychologist when I had to make decisions about whether or not a person was a danger to themselves or others (we’re talking about admission into treatment facilities not criminal matters here). If I decided in the affirmative, it meant a person might be involuntarily confined to a treatment facility. If I decided “not a danger” and I was wrong, the person’s life, or other people’s lives would be in jeopardy. This is a common question asked of a clinical psychologist and though a judge makes the final decision, the expert’s input is usually the determining factor.

I had no idea how these decisions still weighed on me subconsciously, until I saw the extreme version of such a scenario staring back at me, decades later, from the pages of CONFESSION. The book kicks off with Faith figuring out what to do when her patient confesses to the grisly Saint murders. Is he really the Saint? Does she turn him over to the police? Her decision is what sets the plot in motion.

SW: Will we be seeing more of the secondary characters- Caitlin Cassidy and Special Agent Atticus Spenser?

CB: Oh, yes. I confess to being smitten with both of them. Dr. Caitlin Cassidy is a forensic psychiatrist and Atticus “Spense” Spenser is an FBI profiler. They are the protagonists of my next full-length suspense, LABYRINTH, which comes out in Sept. I’m planning quite a future for Caitlin and Spense, so stay tuned.

SW: I can’t wait for LABYRINTH! Do these stories come to you through the villain’s POV or the hero/heroine’s?

CB: As you might expect, they usually come to me via the heroine’s perspective. CONFESSION is absolutely Faith’s story, just like FIRST DO NO EVIL was Skylar Novak’s story. However, I will say that I’ve long been fascinated by a certain literary work and that wormed it’s way into CONFESSION and heavily influenced the villain’s psyche. I’m not free to say more than that without spoiling the story…so I’ll just leave that as a tease.

SW: I will say nothing! Do you ever get frightened by what you write?

CB: Yes and no. I’m frightened by the existence of evil. But my stories allow me to quash those fears by making sure that no matter the odds, good always triumphs in the end. I do get scared at times, especially when researching real events that influence what I’m writing. Real bad guys frighten me—fictitious ones not as much.

SW: Thank you so much, Carey, for spending the day with us. But now it’s the reader’s turn to ask a question or leave a comment. And for one lucky commenter, Carey is giving away a $10 Amazon gift card!

Do you have a fear or phobia? And if so, how do you deal with it? Comment for a chance to win a $10 gift card.

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About Sharon Wray

Sharon is a librarian who once studied dress design in the couture houses of Paris and now writes novels of adventure, suspense and love for Sourcebooks. She's a wife, mother of twins, caretaker of Donut the One-Eyed Family Dog, and addicted to snapping photos and eating Oreos.

Congratulations to Carey on her new book. I also have trouble with the sight of blood and bugs. When my kids were younger and would get hurt I would just focus on cleaning them up so it that I wouldn’t give myself the time to get upset. My question is: Do you find it difficult to balance the romance and the suspense?

Thanks Maureen! You can add bugs to my list too! But isn’t that true- when you’re the one the kids are looking to, there’s no time to be a wimp 🙂 To answer your question I do find it hard to balance romance and suspense, but I think it’s natural for all of us and for book characters to turn to each other in tough (or frightening) times. Thanks for commenting!

Congrats on the release – you know I loved it – and even though they were in the book a short time I havent been able to forget about Caitlin and Spenser – sooo looking forward to their book.. All my phobia’s (except for bugs) are of my own doing. I started off watching scary movies young (even though in today’s standards they wouldnt be scary) but I dont like the dark, I will not sleep in a room with the closet door open – I will not sleep in a bed that isnt a platform bed and no part of my body can hang off the bed. And even with all of that I still like watching scary movies 🙂

Any squeamishness I had about bugs and snakes I had to let go of during my years as a field archaeologist. I do not like rattlesnakes, but I was the intruder in their world, so I learned to walk carefully in their habitat.

I do have a fear of flying, but I refuse to let it stop me from traveling. I just make sure I always have a really good book when I fly, so I can forget I’m in the air.

Oh my gosh, Rachel. I never thought about your job and all the scary things that could show up at a dig. I just assumed that the worst thing to find would be a demon statue like in the opening scene of the Exorcist. But I think snakes trump that. 🙂

LMAO – it never occurred to me to fear demon statues! But once a huge land crab did emerge from the sand and snap at at my pit partner right after I told him the we were likely to be haunted by the soldiers who died there in the 1600s. Scared the heck out of us and then we laughed hysterically.

I’ve dealt with black widow spiders, rattlesnakes, and scorpions, but the thing I hated the most about fieldwork was poison oak/ivy. I quit fieldwork because of the plants, not the animals.

Carey: Happy release day! I started CONFESSION and it sucked me right in. Can’t wait to see what happens next. I don’t have any debilitating fears, but I definitely don’t like big bugs, snakes, or spiders, or standing too close to the edge of a long drop off. 😉

I used to hate public speaking too, but three years of Toastmasters helped me overcome that one.

Anne thanks so much! And thanks for reminding me about the facebook party. It’s tomorrow and everyone’s invited! https://www.facebook.com/events/770999556263155/
Anne The Birds is one of my favorite, and most terrifying movies ever! I’m with you on that one.

Anne, The Birds terrified me so much that I wouldn’t go out to the playground during recess if there was a single bird on the jungle gym. I still am terrified by that movie and still get the chills when I see large groups of birds amassing anywhere.

Whoo hoo- just excused from jury duty!
Chiming in late, Carey, but with no less enthusiasm. I also just finished CONFESSION a day ago and it gave me the good kind of creeps. Very twisted plot, you have my deep admiration! (Worshipful bow.)

Phobia…hmm. I don’t have a fear of heights, but I have fear of falling, if that makes any sense. Went tandem skydiving 20 years ago to slap it out of me.

The ‘a’ key is not working properly on my keyboard and it’s driving me nuts. So if anyone is having a rotten day, just think of me having to hit this #%$* key 4 times for the ‘a’ to finally pop up.
🙂

Best of luck in sales, Carey, you deserve all the success coming to you!

Congratulations, Carey! Confession is terrific. I couldn’t put it down once I started reading. I know it will be a huge and deserved success.

I suppose my greatest fear is not having success in the book biz. I deal with it by hanging around the greatest group of women here at Kiss and Thrill and continuing to write no matter what. I couldn’t do it without the whole lot of you!

Arachnophobia…all I have to say is …SPIDERS SUCK! If you’ve never seen a 5’11” tomboy woman get all slasher horror movie blond girl screaming…. well, according to my hubby and friends, it is a helluva sight.

Congratulations Carey on Confession’s release. I just bought it and really look forward to becoming friends with Faith and Luke. And, finding out your villain’s secrets is a must! Gotta go… must read. 🙂

I HATE elevators, Deborah. Once, when I worked in a high rise, the elevator doors opened and there was nothing there! Just a huge 45-floor drop. A man almost walked in, but we grabbed him back just in case. Ever since then, I stand back and am always the last to get in and the first to get out. Even if I have to wait a few cycles to fit in.

I have a weird phobia about high places when on a road trip. I won’t look out the window if we’re driving along a high cliff edge. If I do look at it, I get this “pull” feeling like I’m going to cause the car to go over the edge. And I felt the same while at the Grand Canyon on a lookout platform that hung over a deep chasm. Shiver. So glad to “meet” you, Carey. I need another romantic suspense author to read from! jdh2690@gmail.com

I have a huge fear of roaches and no matter what I do to try and race it I’m still terrified. I did have a fear of blood but after high school as part of my schooling I apprenticed at a hospital. Two weeks in the ER and my fear was cured, lol.